Ways to avoid ATM charges in India

·         Use cards

Use your debit and credit cards so that you don't need too much cash. However, some may charge 1-2% transaction fee. There is also the danger of overspending.

·         Plan your cash flow

Don't wait till you are broke to withdraw money from the ATM. Plan 2-3 days in advance so that you are not forced to use another bank's ATM. While withdrawing cash, take out more than the amount you need immediately. Take into account the expenses during the coming 8-10 days and withdraw accordingly.

·          Prefer your own bank

Avoid using another bank's ATM. Only if there is no ATM close to you should you use another bank's ATM. Some banks have apps that can help you locate their nearest ATM on the smartphone.

·          Keep emergency cash

Keep some cash at home in case you run out of money due to unforeseen expenses. However, don't keep too large an amount in cash. In your effort to save Rs 20 in ATM fees, you could be losing out more on interest on that amount. Besides, keeping cash at home is not always a safe option.

·         Use dormant account

ATM charges will help revive your dormant bank account. Most banks charge Rs 80-100 annually for a no-frill debit card. One card allows 36 transactions on other banks' ATMs and 60 at your own per year. This is a cheaper option.

Life in Muscat, Oman

Daiqah Dam, Quiriyat, Oman

Of souks, supermarkets and mandis

The past one year in Muscat has changed my shopping experience. Though we have malls and super markets such as Big Bazaar, Reliance and Nilgiris back home, I have never been so spoilt for choice. Of course that always lands one in a dilemma. Which brand to buy, which is cheaper, which gives you value for money and how much to buy.

The seasonal bargain offers too lands one in a quandary. At LuLu and Safeer I always have to argue with my wife and daughter about what to buy and how much. Back in India this was no big deal. There were seldom real bargain deals. And we had limited options too to choose from. If Big Bazaar stocked a certain brand then it would be missing in the shelves of Spencer’s Daily or Reliance or More never.

I am fell in love with bargaining for clothes and sundry at first in New Delhi’s Janpath Lane, just off Parliament Street and Connaught Circus (They have renamed it to Rajiv Chowk now. Erasing all traces of British Raj, I guess).

Back in the 1990s the shopkeepers in the lane used to call out: ‘Das ka Das ka, koyi bhi, le lo’ (Only 10 rupees, take anyone) in a sort of chant that I was mesmerised by it. Today they must be chanting in the range of 100s as in ‘Sau ka Sau ka, koyi bhi, le lo’.

Janpath remained my favourite place for bargain hunting be it a T-Shirt, a shirt or bags or for just hanging out and have soda from DePauls during my life in Delhi. Even the Chandini Chowk area in Old Delhi was a paradise for bargain hunters. Come Sunday I used to head out to Darya Ganj, also in Old Delhi to look for second hand books, which again could be had for a couple of tens. And books could be given away which saved me the trouble of carting it around

Today the favourite haunts of Delhiites are the numerous shopping malls that have sprung up all over the capital of India. The malls in Gurgaon are the favourite what with a couple of cinemas thrown in. Nowadays, shopping has become an all day experience where one shop, see a film and eat out too.

The art of haggling is slowly disappearing and my skills too have become rusted. True, with groceries coming at such bargain prices as in Muscat, there is seldom any need for bargaining. The shopping cart has become a de rigueur, into which we haul in stuff and then at the counter we pay with our debit card. No questions asked. And we find that we always end up buying more stuff even after taking a huge list when we go for our monthly shopping. The monthly shopping budget in Muscat is much lower than it ever was back home, my wife vouches.

As for me give me a local shop or market any day. I love haggling over the price for the sheer pleasure of it. The local mom and pop shop (or should I say the son and pop shop as is the case in India) gives me much more. We gather the local gossip and other important happenings in the locality we live. Alas they are slowly disappearing in my town too.

The local mandi or market  gives me much more in life that a super market or mall can never give in its airconditioned comforts. I love the bustle and hustle of a market even the smells which the sanitised atmosphere of a mall or super market can never beat.

India opens retail markets to Wal Mart, Carre Four

In a landmark decision on November 24, India open its $450 billion retail market to global supermarket giants,approving its biggest reform in years that may boost sorely needed investment in Asia's third-largest economy. 

The cabinet allowed global chains like Wal-Mart, Carrefour and 7-Eleven to bring up to 51 per cent foreign equity to open multi-brand retail stores despite opposition by some allies in the ruling coalition. It also allowed 100-per cent equity in single brand retailing.

The government feels the move will cut intermediaries between farmers and retailers and will help them get more money for their produce. It also hopes the move will help bring prices at retail level down and calm inflation.

How long will we have to wait for the results to show?

Will Dam999 reignite another war of words?

Dam999 being released today is already causing a lot of angst in Tamil Nadu. The movie, directed by Sohan Roy is about the Mullaiperiyar issue, which incidentally has been a bone of contention between two south Indian states.

An enraged group of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam cadres – who insist the movie is partial to Kerala because the director is a Malayalee -- barged into Prasad Film Laboratories in Saligramam and damaged property.

Police arrested 23 of them, including the party’s state general secretary ‘Mallai’ Sathya. Sohan Roy meanwhile has issued a statement that the movie is based on the true story of the Banqiao dam collapse, which killed 2.5 lakh people in China in 1975 and has stated that Dam999 has nothing to do with any dam in India or in Tamil Nadu.

He says the Mullaperiyar issue had given him the idea to make a film on dam disasters and also added that he planned to hold a special preview for politicians.

The parties that have been riled up by the movie are the Pattali Makkal Katchi, MDMK and Puthiya Tamizhagam, who have all demanded that the state government stop the release of the film saying it would trigger law and order problems in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Thank you Steve Jobs

The man who forced all of us to become social animals on the move has logged out of life.

Thank you Steve.

New to the blog world

Attention all Mallu blogreaders out there. Click and read this.
The birthpangs of a blogger

Congrats again, Sangeetha!

“Special Jury Mention Award” with a cash prize of Rs. 2 lakh awarded to “Charulata…A Sequel of the Life Untold,” by Sangeeta Padmanabhan at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).
And when she won her first award

Looking for a groom for his daughter

A 50 something father of two ladies who is a close aquiantance is frantically searching for the right bridgroom for his daughter who is an IT professional. Given the fact that his elder daughter, who is also an IT professional settled in the US of A, the Mecca of all new age professional, has married into a rich family, he has to find an equal match. And other than finding about a possible bridegroom's character, all that matters for him (the father) is whether he is a IT professional settled in the US, a BE from a reputed institute, his salary, whether his parents are professionals.
And the girl too is happy with this arrangement. It hardly matters whether the boy's temperament suits you, or his character.
Will only having lots of money make you happy? Or are you only successful if you are in a professional making lots of money? I often wonder what these parents and kids think of other people around them who are in other fields or are making less money?
Unfortunately, my mother too seems to subscribe to the view that only lots of money can make any one happy!

Timemachine

Have you seen a time-machine? I have, in Old Delhi.
Well actually it is not a time-machine in the real sense of the term. It is actually the Old Bridge across the Yamuna, the Iron bridge from British Raj.
I have travelled across the bridge many times and it never ceases to amaze me. It is actually two bridges in one. there is the rail bridge and underneath it is the one for all sorts of transport. And it is this fact that gives it a sort of time-machine quality.

 I have seen bullockarts, tongas, cyclerikshawas, trolleys, hand carts, and what not, plying across the bridge. I, in my trusted Yamaha Motorbike, have travelled across it to visit my in laws who were then living in Dr. Mokherjee Nagar in the Delhi University area from out flat in Noida any number of times.
The bridge is a marvel of engineering. Nowhere else have I seen such an antiquated bridge. Maybe, only the hanging bridge at Punaloor in Kerala had that effect on me when I was a child. I have not been to UP by train and so have not experienced the bridge by train. Shall do it the next time I am in Delhi

Big Brother is watching, Indians

Who said going hi-tech means foolproof?

 And has nobody told people here that exposing govt stupidity could land you in jail?
Read this then
Over the weekend, the Indian establishment demonstrated how bizarre the mix of political insecurity, intolerance to criticism, and sheer stupidity could be. Mumbai police arrested Hari K. Prasad, chief of Indian research and development firm Netindia, reports IANS.
The reason: Prasad is member of a team of security researchers, including American computer scientist J. Alex Halderman, who have been working to show that India's electronic voting machines (EVMs), like those in the US and elsewhere, are flawed, and can be hacked, altering election results.
In 2009, the Election Commission of India (ECI) publicly challenged Prasad to show that India's voting machines could be compromised. But incredibly, they did not give him access to a machine. Prasad's team managed to acquire an EVM from a source earlier this year, and soon proceeded to expose security flaws.
Prasad was arrested on August 21 for refusing to disclose the identity of the source from whom the EVM was secured for the tests. Halderman wrote in his blog that early Saturday morning, at 5:30 hrs, 10 police officers arrived at Prasad's home in Hyderabad. They questioned him until 8 a.m., then placed him under arrest and drove him to Mumbai, over 14 hours away by road.
Hari K. Prasad, J. Alex Halderman and Rop Gonggrijp have been working on an "independent scientific study of the security of India's EVMs". On the project's website at indiaevm.org, the team reports that the ECI has spoken of India's EVMs as "infallible and perfect".
Yet, similar machines used around the world have been shown to suffer from serious security problems. India's EVMs had never been subjected to credible independent research, says the site. An attacker with brief access to EVMs can tamper with votes and potentially change election outcomes.
This could be done two ways. One, by replacing parts of the machines with look-alike parts without the involvement of any local poll official. Two, by using portable hardware devices to change the vote records stored in the machines. The latter may involve local election officials, but still be undetected by national authorities or the EVM manufacturers.
In one experiment the team added a Bluetooth module, to be able to swing the EVM's votes wirelessly. The EVMs are "sealed by stickers, string, and red wax", which are hardly any barrier to an attacker.
The team also says that the EC-appointed expert committee, which certified the EVMs as secure comprised people with no apparent EVM security credentials, who did a superficial study based on presentations and site visits. Prasad's team worked with a real machine and demonstrated working attacks.
The team notes that real criminals would probably have less difficulty in accessing one or more of India's 1.4 million EVMs than this research team did. And the real criminals would not be working to inform the public about the security problems.
There are two ways to handle the scientific critic, or the messenger of bad news.
In July, in the world's premier security conference Defcon, security researcher Chris Paget demonstrated how easy it was, using $1,500 of equipment, to intercept GSM mobile phone calls. The US government and FCC could have arrested him. They did not. The demo has been taken as a wake-up call for telecom security.
On the other hand, in China, a critic who demonstrates that a government system is flawed will get an early morning visit from the police, and will likely disappear without a trace.
Are we getting dangerously close to the China model?
There is enough evidence from global research now that there are serious concerns about EVM security. The Netherlands, once fully onto EVMs, has switched back fully to paper ballots, and other nations are contemplating following suit.
It is past time for India to open up EVM security to serious scientific scrutiny, on an urgent basis. In the process, the ECI should apologise to Hari K. Prasad and his team, and appoint them as consultants in beefing us security for electronic voting.
If it does not do this, I have to suspect the ulterior motives of the Election Commission of India, which has been working so hard to suppress information about security flaws in its EVMs, rather than find out how to fix them. IANS

It can happen only in India!

What start with dogs barking at some boys ended in two deaths, including that of a physically challenged girl.
In India's hierarchical society even an unsuspecting dog must have a caste. So it seemed when in Mirchpur village of Haryana, some dogs of low caste dwellings dared to bark at Jat boys. There was an angry backlash by the Jat boys and counter protests by the Dalit owners of the dogs.
To demonstrate their physical and social might, the Jats rallied around and attacked the Dalit dwellings, resulting in the death of two people, including one physically challenged girl.

The incident strained the sensibilities of Justice G S Singhvi of the Supreme Court who pointedly asked how "a dog of a Balmiki basti barking at a child become a cause of violence and murder of a physically challenged girl". "A dog could not have been killed on this ground. If that was the case then all the dogs would have been killed".

Russians spend the longest in queues every day

In my school days one joke on the erstwhile USSR went like this:
Tired of waiting in a queue for essential goods, one Russian swore that he is going to Palace to kill the President. Soon he returned. Asked why he came back so fast, he said, "There is an even longer queue outside the Kermlin."
The situation does not seem to have improved after Glasnost and Peristroika, according to a survey.

Russians spend an average of 27 minutes every day waiting in queues, longer than anywhere else in Europe. This statistic is mainly due to huge numbers of people at post offices and banks, a survey said. The study conducted in 18 countries examined queues in grocery stores, banks, post offices, drug stores, fast food restaurants, bus stops and train stations.
The poor show in Russia is also due to the fact that officials at places where people line up "never do anything to reduce the lines", Oksana Aulchenkova, head of Nextep company, which carried out the survey, was quoted as saying by The Moscow Times.

True Dravidian culture

When my wife and I made plans to shift to Chennai from Delhi and when she later moved to Tiruchirappalli, our friend K S Narayanan said, "Go lady, and imbibe true culture!" After spending seven years in Chennai and Tiruchirappalli we found that statement quite meaningful.
Have you heard the word Pandi mentioned while someone is referring to a Tamil? Then the one who said it must be a Malayali. And the tone would have been bordering on ridicule. Once, I too was part of the Malayali crowd mouthing that. Today I am wiser, having experienced the Tamil culture. The Tamils give you respect that you won't get in any other part of the country.
Even when we know the fact that Malayalam language evolved from Tamil or manipravalam, which was a mix of Malayalam and Tamil, why do we make fun of a people who have claim to one of the oldest civilisation in the Indian sub continent? The word Pandi must be a short form of Pandyan, one of the oldest Kingdoms in the country. The Pandyas of Southern India are believed to have been founded around five to six centuries before the Christian Era
While the Tamil language evolved in the third century BC, Sangam literature is dated from the 300 BCE – 300 CE, Malayalam had its origins in the ninth and tenth Centuries with remarkable development in philosophy, literature, education and the fine arts.
While the people of Kerala are losing their culture to other dominant ones, our neighbours have been able to preserve their culture, language and way of life. Go to Tanjore right in the middle of Tamil Nadu. It is the repository of rich culture that is quite Dravidian. The Big temple or Brihadeshwara temple is the right icon of true Dravidian culture. And the Srirangam temple of true Bhramanical order.
On the other hand, Malayalis are aping the westerners unabashedly. And the people of the state shares some of the psychological disorders of the Swedish or the Americans.
While I am not one for clinging to old ways of life, should we be so unabashedly materialistic?
Today, the great career for the Mallu is that of code cruncher. He/she is a churning out software to run the utilities and what not of Western nations. And, if you are not an IT professional earning in dollars, you haven't arrived. You dig?

Transport integration is the key

I now live in the commercial capital of Kerala, a city that I always wanted to live in as it is the only one in the state with a cosmopolitian charatcter.
It is bursting at its seams with overcrowded roads and traffic jam that extends to all its periphery. Even the byepass has not helped ease the situation in the city.
Personal vehicles have increased manifold over the years adding to the urban chaos. The congested roads are a nightmare when it starts raining. Monsoon is a fact that can't ever be wished away from Kerala. Rather than deal with it effectively, the city fathers sit over it and hope that the complaints would stop once the monsoon season is over. On the day it started pouring, I was out of town and came the next day to see a city with the main MG Road turned into an MG river.

I have often felt that what the city needs is integration of all its traffic infrastructure.
And I hope that the Metro Rail never comes for this small city.
A majority of the floating population in the city arrive by trains and leave by trains. Give the nature of the city, this is only bound to increase. The city has two railway stations, Ernakulam Junction and Ernakulam Town. While Junction (or South in local parlance) has two entrances, only the main entrance of Town station is approchable by big vehicles. A majority of the passangers arriving by trains either has to avail the auto rickshaw service or walk down to the bus stops about a km away.
It would be a big relief if the KSRTC authorities decide to have stops closer to both entrances of South railway station. In fact, that is how it is in major railway stations across the country. This would help cut down on number of autorickshaws running in the city.
It may not be yet possible to have a stop closer to the Town station.
Another major infrastructural development would be to move the state-run KSRTC bus stand closer to the South railway station. Infact both the bus station and railway station can be brought under the same roof if authorities will it.
Kochi has a huge waterbody that need to be put to better use. Until recently the boat services were in use. A major change needed is the introduction of modern boats and not the rickety ones that pass off as passenger boats. And better shelters need to be built at the jetties. Additionally, buses need to have a bay inside such jetties.
A common pass for trains, buses and boats would be of much help. This is working well in cities such as London and Singapore.
The Urban Transport Ministry has to work for a change. Instead of separate ministries working at cross purposes, we need to evolve a common unit to tackle the transport problems of this country. Instead of giving clearance to more car factories, the govt should get more bus factories to help solve the shortage of mass transport vehicles in Indian cities.
Even though I love to drive a car, I frequently take the bus in my city as I can have a relaxed journey!

Do you believe in miracles? I do

Many summers ago, one evening I was roaming the streets of Paris Corner in Madras/Chennai after office. I go there to buy folders, papers and such stationary. That day, I was in one of the bylanes of the area opposite the Madras High Court (I don't remember which one) when I heard a child crying out in pain. I saw a hardly five year old boy with his hand dangling, obviously broken, and not bandaged, howling in pain. He obviously belonged to one of the families that hang out with a cycle rikshaw on the streets. I asked who his parents were. One of the guys suddenly got agitated with that question. I said we should take the boy to a hospital and I offered to go with them. Those guys simple refused to heed that. And I left after being assured that they would do the needful, which I doubt they did.
Those days I was living in a house in Saligramam, a good 45 minutes by bus. When I reached home, I found the house locked. Those were the days when cellphones were yet to become popular. So I immediately asked our neighbours where everyone was. They asked me to first sit down and have a glass of water before they told me that my daughter met with an accident.
Malavika was hardly one at that time. While my mother-in-law was moping the house, Malu threw a pen cap into the bucket of water and while reaching for it fell in and almost lost consiousness.
Fortunately, my mother-in-law was able to revive her and immediately rush her to hospital where the doctors put her under observation for the night.

And the incident must have happened around the time I was concerned about that street kid. We still can't explain what miracle happened to save our daughter. That was about nine years ago. Today, she is a 10 year old in her sixth grade always watching Miley Cyrus and Mr Bean and quite aware of Orkut and Facebook. And she is always concerned about her fellow human beings. Thank god!

Waka Waka, where is India?

I was chatting with my sister living in Tema, Ghana over Google chat recently. And it was the day after the kick off of the World Cup and she informed me with glee that Ghana won against Serbia 1-0.
Her colleagues at the hospital she is working is asking, "Mrs Manju, where is the team from India?"

Alas, that sums up India's participation in the World Cup. Will we ever put up a show in the World Cup in the next 10 years? I am sure no. Even though the game is played and the Indian Premier League does exist, it fails to pick up a devout fan following as cricket in the country. I wonder why. Even England, the birthplace of cricket, has a strong team and the name Bekham is on the lips of every football lover in the country and abroad.
Kerala, which was once a football loving state where every street corner in the northern part has a football team, has swtiched its love to cricket. Maybe because there are not as many football matches taking place in the country as cricket.
The fact is I hate cricket and love football, even played it during my school days (I know, it is hard to believe it when you see me with my potbelly and haggered look. I, myself wonder sometimes how I managed to run cross country and karate during my college days).
Politicians want a hand in every pie and destroys even games by politicking. When will we stop playing games with games and actually play the game?

City of cricket, cakes and circuses

The famed Thalassery biriyani was a let down when I finally got to savour it at Paris, the restaurant in Thalassery town that has been serving the famed food of the Mughals for decades, last month. I was used to the hot fare that they serve elsewhere in the country. Or even the Thalassery biriyani that they serve in Trivandrum.
When we arrived in the first British town of Kerala on May 22, tasting the famed biriyani was on our list of things to do in that town. When we asked around for the place to have the particular Biriyani, we were told and directed to this old restaurant near the bus stand that is reputed to serve it. At the restaurant, which is a bit run down, they still serve the old biriyani, untouched by any modern tastes. There were no eggs to be found in the servings and it was no great shakes. The spiciness was missing as we thought it should be. But what the heck, who said a Biriyani needs to be spicy.
And the town is famed for its cakes and other sweet delicacies, handed down from British masters of the town. It is also known as the birth place of the Kerala’s first newspaper, (Rajya Samacharam) first English school and first college. Herman Gundert set up the first press of Kerala in Thalassery and also compiled a Malayalam grammar book, Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam, in 1859, the first Malayalam-English dictionary in1872, and translated the Bible into Malayalam.
Thalassery also holds the unique distinction of having India's first Cricket Club in 1860. Lord Arthur Wellesley is believed to have introduced this game in Kerala in the 18th century for the British Soldiers who were garrisoned in the Tellichery Fort.
And then Mahe is just next door…
I love my occasional glass of vodka with a dash of lime and ice and where else to get it cheap other than Mahe. I would like to go back again sooner than later to spent a day exploring the watering holes of Mahe from afternoon to late night, guzzling beer and savouring any regional flavours that is unique to Mahe.

Cooking is no rocket science!

Until I moved to Kochi in January 2010, my attempts at cooking have failed miserably. I was always happy just to taste the dishes and even write on them as I did in The Hindu MetroPlus.
At best I could cook rice, uppuma, good tea and maybe a potato curry. I love yam and cooks something that is edible but not very tasty.
When it came to my turn to cook when I was living in New Delhi’s Mayur Vihar with a paragraph of journalists and software engineers it was always green gram and rice porridge – easy to cook, anyone can do it.
Even in Chennai and later in Bangalore my culinary skills were not something I was proud of. My wife refused to even taste the stuff I would cook whenever it fancies me.
In Kochi, from March when I moved to stay in a two-roomed flat close to my office at Kaloor, I made sure that I learnt to cook at least, one tasty dish.
My first attempt at cooking non-vegetarian food was beef curry, which my wife was surprised to find was tasty. In fact, she reached the city hungry and dreading to cook as she was tired from the six-hour journey after a morning duty at Doordarshan for which she had to get up at 5 am.
After her ‘good’ marks for the dish, I have dared to cook fish curry and fish fry.
This week I even tried cooking ‘cheera,’ my favourite vegetarian dish, successfully. Last Saturday, on my way back from Trivandrum, I bought one of those Rs10 cook books they sell in the train hoping to learn a thing or two. I am yet to try out any of the dishes described in it.
Smitha Sad, I can see you smiling, thinking it can never be that good. Well, next time you are here I am going to serve you something I cooked.